


Make a Wish When Your Childhood Dies

by hopeless_eccentric



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Study, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Rabbits, Teenage Juno Steel, and thats okay and totally valid, in a very loose sense, juno and the sewer rabbits, rabbits as metaphors for juno steel, sometimes your safe place is in the sewer surrounded by rabbits, that should be the name of a band, this is really sweet and thought out but im just losing my shit at the tags so far
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29813397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_eccentric/pseuds/hopeless_eccentric
Summary: Little Guy didn’t seem to care too much about the crack in Juno’s voice or the nervous twitching of his hands or the way his shoulders caved in, as if in curling a few more bones against his chest cavity, he might be able to do something to protect the tattered organ within. When the bunny hopped forward a few more times, splashing merrily until he was close enough to lay his chin on Juno’s knee and blink up at him expectantly, Juno managed a bitter laugh and shook his head.“I dunno what the hell I expected,” Juno sighed, a weary, mirthless laugh dragging on his words like the frayed ends of a rope. “You’re just in it for the sandwich. Course you’re just in it for the sandwich.”
Relationships: Juno Steel & Original Rabbit Character
Comments: 16
Kudos: 45





	Make a Wish When Your Childhood Dies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [navyblueart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/navyblueart/gifts).



> Hey all!! This was inspired by some of navyblueart's tweets, so make sure to check them out!!
> 
> Content warnings for food, references to canon-typical shitty parenting, depression, food insecurity

Somewhere on the other end of Hyperion City, Juno didn’t doubt there was someone his age who took a breather by sticking their head out the window or pausing for a few minutes to look at their comms under their desk. Maybe they’d go out for lunch with friends or tell themselves they could finish the rest of their work when they got home. If they still needed to wind down at some point in the evening, maybe they’d go on a walk through Halcyon Park and breathe in the smell of flowers that flourished on a planet without seasons.

Whoever that person was, they weren’t Juno Steel. He was stuck in Oldtown, so all he had to show for his escapism was the driest corner of the sewer, half a stolen sandwich, and the faint pattering of four heavy paws growing ever closer through the dark.

He wasn’t really in a mood to share his sandwich, but he knew damn well he’d never be able to forgive himself if he didn’t toss at least the crust to whichever one of the rabbits poked its head around the twisting, rotted metal corner first. 

Maybe they snarled and sniffed and huffed like a monster out of a kids’ book, but when push came to shove, they still had big, sweet black eyes and ears that flopped and drooped every time something didn’t go their way. 

At the end of the day, rabbits were smarter than most people gave them credit for. That’s probably why they learned to beg around people they knew wouldn’t lay a finger on them. Begging was a hell of a lot easier than growling.

“Hey, Little Guy,” Juno greeted, trying to pretend his voice didn’t crack when the first rabbit, a no-longer little guy who had been whapping Juno’s leg for food scraps with his paws ever since he was old enough to get around without riding on his mother’s head, hopped into the barely lit corner of the sewer.

If not for the light from the grate above, Juno would have thought the rabbit to be a coal dust black. However, with the prison bar slats of sunset creeping from the grate overhead, Juno could almost make out patches of gray and white in the rabbit’s fur.

Little Guy didn’t seem to care too much about the crack in Juno’s voice or the nervous twitching of his hands or the way his shoulders caved in, as if in curling a few more bones against his chest cavity, he might be able to do something to protect the tattered organ within. When the bunny hopped forward a few more times, splashing merrily until he was close enough to lay his chin on Juno’s knee and blink up at him expectantly, Juno managed a bitter laugh and shook his head.

“I dunno what the hell I expected,” Juno sighed, a weary, mirthless laugh dragging on his words like the frayed ends of a rope. “You’re just in it for the sandwich. Course you’re just in it for the sandwich.”

Little Guy didn’t have a response for that, but he pressed his face into Juno’s leg a little more insistently.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, you’ll get a piece,” Juno huffed between bites he could barely come to stomach, already half-sick with the echoes of a shouting match that had lasted three minutes and would shake him for two hours bouncing around his head the way every drop of water shuddered down the pipes. “Everybody’s getting a piece of Juno Steel today, huh, buddy?”

Juno shook his head and sighed, knowing damn well he was too upset to eat much of anything.

“Fine,” he conceded, tossing the barely dented sandwich into Little Guy’s waiting paws. “You take it. You’re obviously having a good enough day. Why the hell not?”

He had expected the rabbit to tuck the food into his mouth and run off the way most of them did, hiding their scraps of food from one another in their own separate corners, eventually crawling back, one by one, until a small chorus of critters had gathered at his feet again. The cycle would repeat until Juno ran out, at which point his small army of furry friends would dissipate, going back to scrounging once their convenient stooge had run dry.

Instead, Little Guy caught the sandwich in his teeth and did not move from his spot resting against Juno’s leg. To Juno’s surprise, he gave the bread a sniff or two before seeming to decide it wasn’t worth the trouble and nudging it back up Juno’s thigh with his pink, twitching nose.

“What the hell’s wrong with it? You allergic to turkey or something?”

Little Guy just blinked.

“Tell me I haven’t got you guys used to the good stuff. I don’t have anything decent for me today, so you’re not getting anything good either,” Juno huffed.

Little Guy nudged the sandwich again until it collided with Juno’s empty hand.

“C’mon, it can’t be that bad.”

Little Guy huffed.

Juno rolled his eyes, but closed his hand around the sandwich anyway, trying his damndest not to let his lip curl at the sight of the bite mark from where Little Guy had taken it. However, before he could stomach the thought of eating the thing just to keep the rabbit happy, Little Guy sank his teeth into his end of the sandwich and tugged, pulling it cleanly in half.

“What—”

Little Guy hopped off his leg before he could finish the sentence, plopping down next to him to hold his chunk of sandwich between his little paws and munch away at it. Juno could only look down at the piece left in his own hand, untouched by paws and teeth alike. Maybe Little Guy couldn’t do much more to communicate than rest his chin on Juno’s boot as he chomped away, making noisy little grumbles with every bite, but Juno was pretty damn sure Little Guy was trying to tell him something.

Maybe he was just cold and tired lonely as all hell, but he supposed there were worse things in the world than feeling like he mattered to someone, especially the kind of someone who growled at strangers and stole their food and hid away in the sewers, just because nine times out of ten, there was never another person down there. Little Guy could’ve just scurried off like every other rabbit who used him for scraps and a cheap pat on the head, but rather than going anywhere once he finished his dinner, he plopped down on Juno’s foot with the kind of happy huff that sounded like he wasn’t gonna be going anywhere for awhile.

Juno didn’t have any problem with that. With the shades of the domed sky getting darker with every minute, he didn’t doubt he’d finally drag himself home around four in the morning. If he couldn’t stomach that, he might try Sasha’s, for it was the closest place with a roof and a sleeping bag that he could almost call a home.

For the time being, he finished his sandwich, knowing he wouldn’t ever be able to say no to that cute little face.

Maybe a sewer wasn’t the best place to spend the night, but as far as places to breathe for just a moment and pretend he’d come home to a home instead of a warzone went, it wasn’t half bad. He could get used to the feeling of a broken pipe beneath him and a snoring adolescent rabbit on his foot. 

He didn’t know if he felt safe or if he felt loved or if he even felt appreciated, but he felt like there would be someone to miss him if he didn’t show up again tomorrow. Maybe that alone was worth something.

**Author's Note:**

> man. i love that funky little rabbit
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading!! Make sure to SMASH that kudos button and leave a comment down below or no threats on this one actually i hope you all know i love you
> 
> Check me out on tumblr @hopeless-eccentric or on twitter @withaen22 !!


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